Barker to Montreal?

Really, how would they know that - did you tell them? What trouble have they caused? Mind sharing this insider info you got.

Last year it was rumored they hung around with a nobody who wanted to be a big time mobster but was really an outsider playing cops & robbers. The local press because of their psychotic need to cause melodrama made him out to be the next Rizzuto.

This year Sergei misses a team bus but makes it anyhow to a game in Quebec City and J.M. shouts at him because Sergei is still in Carbo Standard time. Despite the fact he was recovering from shoulder surgery and couldn't work out, the organization decided they didn't like his work ethic and his game conditioning. They sent him to Hamilton. Sergei who has an ego the size of the Goodyear blimp basically tells them you're a bunch of idiots. Play me or trade me. Time is showing that Sergei was half right. They are a bunch of idiots running the team.

Wanna compare this to Kane who gets drunk, attempts to steal money from a cabbie, beats him up and then effing lies about it to the cops and the press?

Also, you wanna compare the way The Hawks handled that situation and the way our geniuses handled Sergei?

Chicago knows the brothers Kostitsyn are a bunch of trouble makers, i think we'd need to sweeten the deal a bit mor to get Barker. He wont be traded over for only the K bros.

Too bad they won't even be getting that.

A second line of Pacioretty-Plekanec-D'Ags would make me shoot myself. We really can't afford to throw offense out the window with the way we're playing right now. Especially with 7 NHL D-men on the squad (O'Byrne won't be out for much longer and we'll have 8 when Markov comes back).

Hey man, i'm just saying what it'll take to land Barker right now. You do realize who Barker is right? The 3rd pick overall in the 04' draft? He's 23 years old. He could be the next Pronger. Seriously. Watch a Chicago game sometime, and you'll start to see what i'm talking about. Maybe Chicago would need to throw in a draft pick too, or MTL wouldn't have to add the 2nd rounder. But believe me, this trade ain't happening without a MTL 1st rounder, in either 2010 or 2011, going.

I see a totally different Barker than that. I see a guy who makes terrible reads in his own end and is getting bumped off the depth chart in Chicago. He can produce on the PP, and they had to sign him to a contract based on his production, but he's a player that needs to be protected on the ice. As a 3rd overall pick, I call him a bust, not a "next Pronger". His career potential is Patrice Brisebois, IMHO.

Which is still not bad or anything... Brisebois had a productive and lengthy NHL career despite some of his limitations, and I think if you can have Barker on your team, you take him and put up with his limitations similarly, because overall, if utilized and sheltered correctly, he will be an asset.

But to me, that's not the kind of player you go out and pay a premium on in a trade. You can get one on the UFA market for just the cash. Or string along with some year-to-year band-aids like Mara who will overall give you as much on the ice.

And there's no way the Habs should be giving up their 1st rounder this year in any trade. They will get a far better prospect than Barker almost no matter where they are picking, and it's entirely possible that the pick will be quite a high one.

The way things are shaping up in Chicago, it seems to make perfect sense that they would trade Barker this year, in order to afford all the RFA's they have next year, which include Toews, kane and ladd -- three big pieces up front -- and Keith and Hjarmalsson -- two guys getting WAY more minutes than Barker. Basically, besides the PP, Quenneville doesn't much trust Barker, or at least not nearly as much as the top 4. So Barker is expendable, seeing as though Seabrook, keith and Campbell can easily take on the bulk of the PP duties if necessary. The problem for the Habs in all this is that if they want Barker NOW, they have to give the moon, because Chicago can wait till the deadline to move Barker -- it isn't like they are losing and desperate like us. The sad thing is that Barker is not bad on defense (from the couple games i've seen this year). It's just the other guys are better. From what i can tell, he'd be a 1 or 2 in our lineup on tuesday... Just goes to show how good the blackhawks are. What a sick team! If a trade did happen NOW, though, this is what i envision going down:

Cam Barker
Corey Crawford
for

Jaro Halak
Yannick Weber1st round pick 20102nd round pick 2011

I know I know, where's S. Kost? Guess what, Chicago does not want him. He's the complete opposite of what they like or need. A team desperate for a jolt somewhere in the season will trade for him. Not Chicago. No, Chicago wants an instant improvement on goaltending, top picks, someone who can replace Barker, and very little salary. Barker is basically a bottom pairing d-man right now when he's not on the PP. Who better to replace him with a similar guy but for a fraction of the cost? And remember, this trade would look a lot different in March, when Chicago would be more desperate to move Barker.

That's a major overpayment for Barker and AHL goalie Crawford. Our team is currently in the running for the lottery in a top 5 pick in a very deep draft, we traded our 1st in 2008 for Tanguay and look how that turned out. No way do we pull a "Burke" potentially make a young deep team younger, deeper and better.

The Hawks are desperate to shed salary and the over of Halak and Weber maybe ebough for Barker and Crawford.

It would probably be Barker, Huet for Kostitsyn, Halak and a mid round pick.

Chicago will have many offers for Barker and Sharp. They will wait until they rob another team before they make a move.

Problem is Huet isn't going to be moved because of his salary, that's why a small salary like Halak and decent goaltending as well is attractive. Secondly the Hawks are going to get robbed more than the other team trading with them as the Hawks could back themselves in a corner where they will get less value than those players are worth, or possibly even enter the summer with them on the roster and potentially expose their top UFA's in Kane, Toews and Keith to offer sheets and lose their elite.

People are putting too much value into a Barker trade, he will not fetch a 2010 1st rounder, Sharp may get a higher return but the trade will be in prospects and lower salary players like Halak, Weber and Sergei K. At the most Gainey would give a 2011 1st rounder as it is a weaker draft, but a gem can always be found. We are better off to stay status quo in tanking and not trading if the 2010 1st is asked for as a franchise player maybe there in the top 5.

Really, how would they know that - did you tell them? What trouble have they caused? Mind sharing this insider info you got.

Last year it was rumored they hung around with a nobody who wanted to be a big time mobster but was really an outsider playing cops & robbers. The local press because of their psychotic need to cause melodrama made him out to be the next Rizzuto.

This year Sergei misses a team bus but makes it anyhow to a game in Quebec City and J.M. shouts at him because Sergei is still in Carbo Standard time. Despite the fact he was recovering from shoulder surgery and couldn't work out, the organization decided they didn't like his work ethic and his game conditioning. They sent him to Hamilton. Sergei who has an ego the size of the Goodyear blimp basically tells them you're a bunch of idiots. Play me or trade me. Time is showing that Sergei was half right. They are a bunch of idiots running the team.

Wanna compare this to Kane who gets drunk, attempts to steal money from a cabbie, beats him up and then effing lies about it to the cops and the press?

Also, you wanna compare the way The Hawks handled that situation and the way our geniuses handled Sergei?

I see a totally different Barker than that. I see a guy who makes terrible reads in his own end and is getting bumped off the depth chart in Chicago. He can produce on the PP, and they had to sign him to a contract based on his production, but he's a player that needs to be protected on the ice. As a 3rd overall pick, I call him a bust, not a "next Pronger". His career potential is Patrice Brisebois, IMHO.

Which is still not bad or anything... Brisebois had a productive and lengthy NHL career despite some of his limitations, and I think if you can have Barker on your team, you take him and put up with his limitations similarly, because overall, if utilized and sheltered correctly, he will be an asset.

But to me, that's not the kind of player you go out and pay a premium on in a trade. You can get one on the UFA market for just the cash. Or string along with some year-to-year band-aids like Mara who will overall give you as much on the ice.

And there's no way the Habs should be giving up their 1st rounder this year in any trade. They will get a far better prospect than Barker almost no matter where they are picking, and it's entirely possible that the pick will be quite a high one.

I am not that high on Barker either. Defensemen take time some times so not that sure either way. But do know he will be no big help for us at present. Instead I would offer for Seabrooke. Halak, AK and Plekanec for Seabrooke and Sharp.

No thanks! Great player but I think we need a top 6 forward, we already have a good D squad with O'byrne & Markov in the line-up & will already need to bench a defenceman.

If theres anything I find positive from this 5 game losing streak is the play of Gorges & Mara. So that would leave us with a 2.25 Million $ bench warming giant

Does anyone else wish we had signed Mara fo 2 years and Gill for 1 year ?

To be honest I think we need another good d-man instead of a forward.

Yes our scoring has been down, but watching the last few losses it seems to always be due to a defensive breakdown. If you mess up and lose the lead or start trailing with half a period to go, it really kills the momentum.

That game vs Ottawa should have been a blowout in our favour. But we start off so well, miss a few chances, and then Ottawa scores a flukey goal due to a d-zone breakdown and there goes all the momentum we had. Then we fail to score on the 5 on 3 because our d-men can't circulate the puck well enough and...I knew we'd lose the game after they didn't score on that chance.

The way I see it, you have a guy like Barker on the back end on that 5 on 3 and a goal is scored. You score there, and we win the game IMO.

It's been tough to watch these last few games...But on the other hand, I think with Markov in the lineup we win vs Calgary, Edmonton, Colorado and Ottawa. Seriously, just think about it. Markov in the lineup means either 1 more goal scored on the PP or one less goal scored against us. And very possibly both.

If i were the hawks' owner, and my gm pulls this trade, I would fire him,

Cam barker makes 3 mil next 3 years, he isn't overpaid, if you want to shed salary in order to resign key players not THIS year but NEXT year, you should trade campbell, but not this year cause you ok, NEXT year you trade em.

Folk forget the trade, it's way too good to be true, unless we send a super prospect the other way which we do not have (unless subban is the super prospect)

Chicago's team is becoming like Detroit, in the sense that they can flat out win games with practically anyone in nets. Yeah, of course they want to get better in nets, but guess what, as much as halak is an improvement on all those guys, he's also never played a full season, or proven that he can be the go-to guy for an ENTIRE season. If you were in their shoes, would you give away a guy in Barker, who's an effing jackpot for any team, a top 3 pick with oodles of potential, for Halak, a 7th rounder who's played some great games, sure, but is by no means a blue chipper? I mean let's face it, Barker's the big piece here, and Chicago going to look for the best deal possible before moving him. And again, Kostitsyn is so not helpful to chicago right now it isn't even funny. They probably have, top to bottom, one of the top 5 most balanced lines in the league... and thats without Hossa! And that's before i launch into the chemistry issue! I mean let's get real here. GM's don't just take players because that's who the other team wants to give you. It doesn't work like that, unless you have no choice in the matter. And like i said, Chicago's got plenty of choices right now.

i think it's a little premature to compare your team to detroit get back to me in about 20 years. and winning any which way, works maybe against calgary and a sucky luongo but it didn't work vs detroit. i can't imagine the 'hawks will risk going into the second half of the season and playoffs with a shaky huet, no matter how many goals chicago can score. Sound defensive play and a goalie that can cover up mistakes wins championships...i will maintain as long as huet continues to suck Chicago will have to make a deal and it won't necessarily be from a position of strength and relaxation

if this deal involves halak i say wait till the trade deadline and get way more bang for your buck ........ trade sergei for a pick or whatever but when a team at the deadline thats in the running needs a goalie we should get a better return.

Young & relatively inexperienced goalies are worth nothing at the deadline... Halak is currently at his maximum value for the season.

Fail. Last season, he sucked, as did the entire team. Still, he managed 1 PPG for over one month (I think Feb), which is no fluke. The season before that, he had 69 points in 81 games, playing with a first line player (Kovalev). Gomez, with his 7+ mil contract, made one point more than him that year. If in your eyes he's a third liner, then you're smoking some real good stuff.

I'm not saying he's a third liner. I'm suggesting that if we can get size at our second line center position, we do it because that part of our game is killing us. Plekanec gives us good depth at the 3rd line center position, putting Lapierre on the right wing. My post was a response to a poster who suggested that he was undroppable from the top 2 lines. That's not the case and Plekanec definitely isn't our best player. He's a very good 2 way forward tho.

I see a totally different Barker than that. I see a guy who makes terrible reads in his own end and is getting bumped off the depth chart in Chicago. He can produce on the PP, and they had to sign him to a contract based on his production, but he's a player that needs to be protected on the ice. As a 3rd overall pick, I call him a bust, not a "next Pronger". His career potential is Patrice Brisebois, IMHO.

Which is still not bad or anything... Brisebois had a productive and lengthy NHL career despite some of his limitations, and I think if you can have Barker on your team, you take him and put up with his limitations similarly, because overall, if utilized and sheltered correctly, he will be an asset.

But to me, that's not the kind of player you go out and pay a premium on in a trade. You can get one on the UFA market for just the cash. Or string along with some year-to-year band-aids like Mara who will overall give you as much on the ice.

And there's no way the Habs should be giving up their 1st rounder this year in any trade. They will get a far better prospect than Barker almost no matter where they are picking, and it's entirely possible that the pick will be quite a high one.

You're crazy. Brisebois? I don't even know how you could come up with that. It's as arbitrary as saying Scott Gomez is Radek Bonk. WTF.

Alas, unfortunately, Cam Barker is not French therefore the Francophone media will jump all over this guy before he reaches his potential and when the Francomedia get him, "la foule" will follow... the Habs are doomed by their past successes that are now decades old.

I am not that high on Barker either. Defensemen take time some times so not that sure either way. But do know he will be no big help for us at present. Instead I would offer for Seabrooke. Halak, AK and Plekanec for Seabrooke and Sharp.